Solitude is a
healer…
Solitude
is a healer of memories.
Gently,
he rubs liniment on bruises inflicted
By
verbal assaults, sharp words.
Cooling
menthol soothes and spreads.
Originally
published in On the Rusk, Issue 7,
page 2
 |
| Solitude (2005) by Lena Karpinsky |
Photo courtesy of Lena Karpinsky
ReplyDeletePhoto link: http://www.artbylena.com/original-painting/62/solitude.html
Gonzalinho
The Healing Power of a Bit of Solitude
ReplyDeleteBy SHARON JOHNSON
The New York Times
September 22, 1988
Interviews with mental-health experts and people from various occupations nationwide suggest that solitary time is increasingly recognized as central to the well-being of the person and to the health of the family. Therapists find that when people spend time on themselves they reduce stress, increase their creativity and feel less resentful of the demands others place on them.
...Psychiatrists have learned from patients that the amount of time people need to themselves depends on a variety of factors: whether they are extroverts or introverts; how much responsibility they have at work and at home, and their ages and interests. Some patients, they have found, need to be completely alone to feel comfortable, while others find solace in being unaccompanied in a public place like a museum.
Link:
http://www.nytimes.com/1988/09/22/garden/the-healing-power-of-a-bit-of-solitude.html
Gonzalinho
Jesus is eager to lead us “off by ourselves and away from the crowd,” if only we allow him. There, in quiet intimacy, he invites us to show him our deepest wound, our greatest need, our most shameful sin. When we dare to do so, we are met with no reproach, no condescension, no impatience.
ReplyDeleteOn the contrary, we are welcomed with love, tended with prayer and patience and either healed or made stronger for the burden that is ours to bear. As Jesus has thus ministered to us, we are called to do likewise for one another.
Link: http://ncronline.org/blogs/spiritual-reflections/away-crowd
Gonzalinho
A brother came to Scetis to visit Abba Moses and asked him for a word. The old man said to him, “Go, sit in your cell, and your cell will teach you everything.”
ReplyDeleteSource: The Sayings of the Desert Fathers: The Alphabetical Collection, translated, with a foreword by Benedicta Ward, S.L.G., preface by Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh (Kalamazoo, Michigan: Cistercian Publications, 1984), p. 139.
Gonzalinho
This poem was also published in PoemVillage (April 19, 2022) by the Adirondack Center for Writing.
ReplyDeleteGonzalinho